Abstract : The University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) free electron laser (FEL) program was initiated in January of 1980 at the Quantum Institute to study the operation of electrostatic accelerator free electron lasers. A detailed discussion of the operation of these devices can be found elsewhere in this book under the title 'Electrostatic Accelerator Free Electron Lasers'. The main goal in this paper is threefold: (1) to present a summary of the UCSB experimental FEL program to date, (2) to discuss future FEL device development objectives, and (3) to talk briefly about the future of applied research at UCSB. There is presently in existence a large number of high energy electron accelerator machines that can be readily used as sources of electron beams suitable to demonstrate the basic operation of free electron lasers. This is the case, for example, with the super-conducting electron accelerator at Stanford University where the first operation of the free electron laser was demonstrated in 1975, and where the potential operating characteristics of FEL's such as high power, high efficiency and broadband continuous tunability were clearly delineated. To realize all of the above predicted operating capabilities of free electron lasers it is, however, necessary to develop suitable electron beam sources.